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Emerald Spire 36.0 - The Garden Museum
Marin, Kormon and Ismail gave Amara a moment to compose after having received the news of the men's actual intent at the spire. They considered the petrified extraplanars and their plight but finally determined that it wasn't safe to try and unpetrify them at the moment, potentially unleashing powerful and insane angels and demons upon themselves. Kormon, deciding that he wanted another word with the devilish bath attendants, stepped back into the pavilion. The ladies regarded him as he entered and stood up as they gave him their decision: they would show the group the way to the elevator, thereby helping them avoid the numerous deadly carnivorous plants that had grown up all around the garden. As an added bonus, they would also help disarm the numerous security devices on the remaining articles in the museum building, letting them have the valuable items. However, they wouldn't travel any further down. Kormon sized them up and decided that this was a fair arrangement for their freedom. Sharing a handshake, they agreed to terms. Kormon and the two ladies joined up with the others; Katalia and Nithria led them on a winding route, giving a sarcastic yet good-humoured little 'tour' as they went, pointing out where they would have run into beastlike or magical plants that would have killed them. They gestured at all sorts of strange flora, pointing out what planes they were originally from, as almost nothing in this curious garden was Materian in origin. Eventually, they stopped at a wall that had been carved into what seemed to be a building entrance, marked with Valparisan runes that the devils said just read 'museum'. Inside was a classy yet dusty and neglected museum hall set up to have numerous small displays. Most of them were empty but a few still had strange items on display: the ladies explained that some had security that was just a bit too inconvenient for the fleeing looters to want to try and trip, and others didn't have any real apparent value. Case in point was a display that just had a taxidermied cat that had been covered with an illusion to make it seem like it was alive and sleeping. The group, with the assistance of the devils, claimed a statuette of a huge shark's tooth made of a rare extraplanar metal and a fancy magical sword; a helm made out of a shrunken cyclops head was left behind. In one particular case was a large, pulsing brain that Marin spotted and avoided; when he pointed it out to the devils, they shrunk back and hissed that it was no display. It was an intellect devourer which had likely escaped from the zoo and was certainly not contained. Moving quickly and quietly, they all moved through a door in the back that led into some administrative offices, shutting the door as the horrific creature began to stir. Taking them past a series of closed doors, the ladies led them to the former head office. Inside was nothing but some scattered papers abandoned to time, some old furniture, and an elevator that led down deeper into the complex. Katalia and Nithria presented it to them pointedly, awaiting their freedom. Kormon obliged, taking out the pickaxe. Explaining how he would break the necklaces, the ladies leaned over a nearby desk, entreating the half-orc to have good aim. With a solid swing, he shattered Nithria's necklace; she stood up and gushed at her long-lost freedom. Katalia's entreaties to hurry and free her tripled in insistence and Marin joked that they should leave her. Kormon shook his head at the poor joke and, with another swing, freed Katalia as well. The two devils, still in human guises, gushed and reveled in their freedom together, ignoring the group. The somewhat sullen Amara collected up the scattered papers from the office and joined the others in the elevator and as they prepared to descend, the two ladies waved farewell, tossing out one final warning to stay out of the Magelord's way. The elevator ride was long and slightly awkward what with the new tension between Amara and the rest of the group. It took nearly fifteen minutes for it to finally come to a stop, leaving them in a small room that held only a large door emblazoned with the Magelord's seal. Kormon could find no way to open the heavy metal doors but noticed a strange set of nine buttons on the wall beside it. Each one had a rune on it that Amara recognized as the Valparisan symbols for 1 through 9. A glassy panel above it flashed with the same runes when a button was pressed; after four numbers had been entered, it made a buzzing sound and cleared itself. The group deduced that this must be some sort of lock but they had no code; after debating heading back upstairs to search the other offices in the garden or to ask Host, they decided instead to just enter every possible combination of numbers rather than take the fifteen minute elevator ride again and risk fighting that brain monster they had avoided. Several hours later, they entered a code that, instead of buzzing, caused the doors to slide open. Stepping inside, lights immediately flashed on showing them an immaculate room filled with workbenches. Strange glassy panels were set onto some of the walls as well as in the benches themselves, paired with complicated arrays of buttons marked with Valparisan runes; a large chalkboard took up a section of the floor and Amara explained that this was a common tool used in arcane schools for drawing ritual arrays. Confused as to what the strange glasses and buttons might have been used for, the group began to explore. Category:Emerald Spire